No 45 Autumn 1997 Edited by Michael Walters
This was my first trip to see this group performing, prompted by a desire to see The Grand Duke after it had its centenary. Although I had played Rudolph in 1988, I had never actually seen the show, but I had retained a great fondness for it. And this production left that fondness mostly intact ... The fact that they were coinciding with the Centenary date (there was some sort of 'do' on the night before, apparently) had made the company put on a bit of an effort to give the background of the show, and there were a number of boards up with photographs and criticisms of the original production, mostly taken from John Wolfson's book Final Curtain. There were also a number of delightful caricatures of all the major characters (reproduced in the programme) done by Olly Burton, who played Rudolph. There were some postcards of his work for previous shows, and they really are excellent.
The opening did not bode well, as the overture was quite abysmally played - apart from wrong notes, there was no cohesiveness to the band, and it lurched from one tune to another in a most distressing way. The soloists were especially unpleasant, notably the oboist. Once more, I was strengthened in my belief that overtures are best cut by amateur societies unless their orchestra is particularly good. The orchestra continued to let the production down throughout, and this member of the audience would have been happier with a piano or two. They were particularly poor at matching speeds with the chorus; the musical director, Christine English, must take full responsibility for this. On the curtain's rise, I was impressed by the set (which was very close to the original D'Oyly Carte one) and the colourful Homberg costumes, if less so by the singing and dancing. My only quibble with the costumes here was the total dominance of lederhosen and general Tyrolean air. The fact that the chorus is a theatrical company is surely a golden opportunity to have people in appropriately colourful attire with very differentiated characters - when we did it we had a dancing bear and a pantomime horse on the stage! The chorus throughout were pretty wooden, the men especially, and the large numbers of women left the male chorus lines all but inaudible. The choreography was generally very uninspired and static, with too much reliance on hand movements to emphasise lyrics and the odd step and kick. Mind you, it was a small stage, and not a terribly sprightly group of actors to work with! Even allowing for that, the opening of Act 2 did not make the impact it should have done. The only time that they livened up were the scenes of Rudolph and his chamberlains and the Prince and his supernumeraries, which highlighted some nice characters who had previously been hidden.
The production by John Holt was, overall, little better than competent. He was at his best handling the principals, who sang well and cohesively and spoke their lines with understanding, which is more than can be said of the chorus responses! I'm not sure whether it was Mr. Holt's responsibility, but the curtain calls went on rather too long, which unsettled the audience and embarrassed the performers. The end couplings don't seem right for the bows, either - Rudolph and the Princess of Monte Carlo are not of comparable importance!
As Ludwig, George Donald turned in a nice performance, even if he did need the prompt on several occasions. His Sausage Roll song woke the audience up, and his marital complications in Act 2 were handled very nicely. It's still an oddly unmemorable role for its size, though that may be because almost all of Ludwig's songs occur in Act 1, an audiences' memories are never that long. As 'At the outset I may mention' was cut in this production, Ludwig had very little to do as Grand Duke, which can't have helped, either. Lisa, played by an obviously American or Canadian Debbie Wilson, sang her part excellently with poise and power; unfortunately, this is quite inappropriate for the 'very weepy' character of Lisa, and showed that little thought about characterisation was going on. She might have been better as Julia, were it not for the emphasis put on Julia being an English actress. Lisa's Act 2 song 'Take care of him' got the audience restless again - I would cut this to one verse.
The part of Julia was taken by Jill Unsworth, who put on a fairly good German accent throughout - I'm glad to say that the audience got and enjoyed the joke, too. Her singing was good enough when facing straight out, but she would insist on turning upstage all the time, making all sound vanish and her indistinct diction become more so. Julia's best song, in my opinion, is 'I have a rival' - I almost jumped out of my skin the first time I heard it, it was so different from Sullivan's usual fare, and it provides a fantastic opportunity for the gifted actress. Unfortunately it was cut here, while 'So ends my dream' was retained at full length. I wish producers would realise how incredibly dull this song is in performance, how much it holds up the show, and how obvious a 'show off' piece it was for Ilka Palmay. A musically knowledgeable friend of mine tells me that it has the classic structure of an early 19th Century Italian aria: recit., sad section (cantabile), recit., happy section (cabaletta). There was much excitement about the breaking down of this (apparently) outdated form in the mid 1800's, and the song may thus be intended as a parody. Not a very funny one, though!
Ernest Dumkopf (John Gallagher) played his part with charisma and confidence, and sang particularly well, contributing greatly to the success of the quintets (both were kept, with 'Strange the views' reduced to one verse - this worked very well). You always felt comfortable when he was on-stage, and he had the greatest authority of all the principals. His solo ('Were I a king') was pretty good, although they could have picked someone with better 'well-shaped reasons'! Tony Unsworth's Dr. Tannhauser was well sung, solid but rather wooden. Still, he cut an imposing figure, and the part hardly calls out for an Olivier. Olly Burton (Rudolph) almost totally forgot the words of his opening song, and I feared the worst. Fortunately, he recovered admirably and gave a wholly delightful performance, and the highlight of show for me. His strong Northern accent suited the part very well, and his rendition of 'When you find you're a broken-down critter' went down a storm - and this is a song that is very often cut, too. I forgot how good the Duke's dialogue is, and how charming the scene with the Baroness can be. The Baroness herself (Sylvia Boddy) was a slight disappointment, although she sang well and had excellent diction. I think that her costume and makeup were at fault here - she didn't look ill and miserly enough. 'Come bumpers' was retained for her, which was nicely done as a drunk's song. The Prince of Monte Carlo (Frank Sowerby) was very good, especially in the Roulette Song, although his Herald (Billy Ivison) was disappointingly wooden - this is such a good role to camp up! Margaret Howliston made a pretty good show in the small role of the Princess.
The question on one's lips on going to any production of The Grand Duke must be 'How has it been cut?'. I think that I've outlined most of the alterations already, but, in summary, they are: Generally paring down of dialogue of bad jokes and boring passages. Well done, here. 'Strange the views' cut to one verse. 'At the outset I may mention' cut completely - a shame. Although the language is rather difficult, it could be condensed to two enjoyable verses, I'm sure. 'Now, Julia, come' and the following solo cut completely. The can-can cut completely. The cast hid themselves during the Prince and Nobles scene, then jumped out and said 'Boo' at the end. Very awkward. 'Come bumpers', the Roulette Song and 'Well, you're a pretty kind of fellow' all kept intact. Although I like Rudolph's song very much, it really does hold up the action just when everyone's starting to look at their watches.
So, overall, fairly sensible editing, although I would probably be more brutal in places. The big problem still seems to me the temporal distribution of parts; Rudolph and Tannhauser really could do with making another appearance in Act 2 (I have considered putting the 'Capital Plot' trio from Utopia Ltd. for them plus Ernest) before the denouement. And the Prince, although funny, has too much too late - perhaps he could enter singing the Herald's song and forgo the scene with the supernumeraries? It also occurs to me that putting the Grand Duke's entrance and scene with the Baroness between 'How would I play this part' and 'My goodness me!' would allow both his and Ludwig's character more time to develop in the audiences' mind. Anyway, it was an enjoyable night out, mainly thanks to the sterling efforts of the principals and the redoubtable qualities of the music. This is still a problematic show, however, as witnessed by the number of people who left at the interval, and will, I think, never gain a regular place in most societies repertoire. Still, it's great fun to do, the score is terrific, it's a fun challenge to edit and it's always a nice change for a G&S-jaded palate!
FRASER CHARLTON
Web page created 25 July 1998